Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Architects, John Hatheway and Chris McVoy, present an alternative to the Toll Bros development

IN THE SLIDE PRESENTATION BELOW*, two local architects have created an attractive, intelligent, and respectful alternative to the MONSTER SIZED ( 12 stories ) buildings Toll Bros wants to develop along the Gowanus canal. This presentation was also made at the recent CB 6, and CGNA meetings.

Architects John Hatheway and Chris McVoy suggest the construction of lower buildings while keeping the residential square footage unchanged.

Their idea respects, to a far greater degree, the context and integrity of the Gowanus Canal area, and surrounding Carroll Gardens. Their presentation clearly demonstrates, with several red, dotted lines, how massive and oppressive a twelve story high structure would appear in our low rise neighborhoods.

Both Carroll Gardens and the Gowanus are made up of two, three, and four family houses giving it both its low- rise and historical character. Furthermore Toll Bros is requesting a spot re-zoning ahead of the coming re-zoning planned for the Gowanus and CG and is thus PREMATURE.

We should all support this idea and require the city official and CB6 to reject the Toll Bros offending rezoning request.

(*Press the little, white, triangular button in the middle of of the image to begin the presentation. Click a second time to enlarge the image).

CORD HISTORY:

With the "Protect Our Homes" petition, CORD was formed in May, 2007. This petition arose as an overwhelmingly negative response to the coming of the over-sized 360 Smith Street Development at the corner of Smith Street and Second Place (Aka Oliver House; aka 131 Second Place). This petition, which had well over three thousand signatures, led to a new zoning text amendment in summer of 2008.

To: Our Elected Officials, Community Leaders, The MTA:(MAY, 2007)

We the undersigned Carroll Gardens homeowners and residents, are appalled by the "as of right" ruling which allows owners and developers to erect buildings in our neighborhood with no regard to the impact they will present to our quality of life and the value of our homes........http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?crlgrdns